Volume 3 Chapter 25 Changing the place to farm
After the fall harvest, Banta City’s harvest yield had shocked everyone because it had reached a terrifying seven hundred and sixty thousand tons!
Compared to the five hundred and seventy thousand tons from last year, it had increased by one hundred and ninety thousand tons!
Not mentioning the old harvests of Banta City, even the cities that were much bigger than Banta City couldn’t compare.
Because of this harvest yield, Banta City had been in the limelight for the Lampuri Kingdom. With the increase of last year and the year before, Banta City became the only city that his majesty and the agricultural department praised at the same time.
For the Lampuri Kingdom that had been in turmoil for ten years because of famine, grain was a very important thing and no one dared to neglect it.
Count Stagg as the Banta City’s City Lord could make the astonishing grain yield of five hundred and seventy thousand jump to seven hundred and sixty thousand, it immediately obtained everyone’s praise.
Because Count Stagg’s agricultural promotion policies had caused Banta City’s economic development to stagnate, affecting the prosperity of Banta City, some people had spoken veiled criticism of Count Stagg. After learning this harvest yield, they immediately closed their mouths.
So Count Stagg was in danger as the City Lord before the fall harvest, but he consolidated his position right after the fall harvest. The appraisal of the kingdom’s upper caste soared, as if he instantly surpassed all the other City Lords in the Lampuri Kingdom.
However, Count Stagg who had achieved this result didn’t have a high appraisal with the Banta City’s people. In their secret discussions, there were many people who looked down on him.
“Pei! When Count Sean was in charge of the fall harvest last year, he had already calculated the stats for all of Banta City’s farmland. He had all our people help him and he confirmed that even if they planted wheat all over Banta City and harvested everything, it would be impossible to surpass seven hundred thousand tons. In the end, this Count Stagg had brought it up to seven hundred and sixty thousand tons. If you say that there isn’t fraud, I wouldn’t believe it.” Old man Sarkozy said with a look of disdain.
“There’s no need to guess alright?” Jashari beside old man Sarkozy who also came from Mexilan Village rolled his eyes and said, “My wife has a relative from Jord Village and they told my wife that before the harvest, the City Lord Manor sent a group of people to recruit villages from Jord Village. They said that they would be opening canals and ensuring they guaranteed that the fall harvest would be taken over by the City Lord Manor, so they wouldn’t need to worry. When the fall harvest was over, good fellow, how much wheat do you think their Jord Village harvested?”
“How much?” The group including old man Sarkozy asked in a curious voice.
“A full eighty thousand tons!” Jashari loudly said.
“How is that possible!”
“What are you talking about?”
“That’s right, Jord Village is that big, how could it harvest over eighty thousand tons of wheat? Our Kambia Village only harvested sixty thousand tons!”
……
Hearing this reply, everyone started to deeply doubt this eighty thousand tons.
Everyone here was born in Banta City and they had been working in the farms for dozens of years, so they were very clear on the grain yield of every village around Banta City.
Before this, Jord Village was remote and didn’t have good terrain, so a village that didn’t have that much farmland only harvested around thirty thousand tons of wheat and that was with a full harvest.
But this year they reached eighty thousand tons, this really seemed impossible.
“Hei, hei, you don’t know? Let me tell you, after my wife’s relative returned to his field, he found that there was double the straw left and it seemed like there had been this many plants planted in his field. Moreover, didn’t you read the «Banta Times»? The City Lord Manor announced that for this fall harvest, they obtained a new wheat seed from the Drake Duchy, which has a higher output, so the wheat they harvest is much more compared to before.” Jashari said with a laugh.
“Nonsense.” Old man Sarkozy immediately reprimanded, “If there was such a good seed, why would the Drake Duchy give it to Count Stagg? Wouldn’t they keep it for themselves?”
Jashari gave a shrug, “Who knows? Perhaps the Lord City Lord gave the Drake Duchy some special benefits, making them take out even such a good seed.”
“Bullshit!” Old man Sarkozy angrily said, “Didn’t a princess and a minister come from the Drake Duchy a while ago? They were walking around the Falling Rain Valley each day and chatting with chairman Xu, my son personally saw this. How could they cooperate with Count Stagg.”
“Who knows? The matters between important people can’t be understood by peasants like us.” Jashari said in an uncaring voice, “Then again, Banta City’s grain yield increasing is a good thing, we’ll have more face in the future.”
“Are you an idiot?” Old man Sarkozy cursed him, “Do you not understand what this means? Now that Banta City’s grain yield has increased, that Count Stagg can steadily sit in the City Lord position. If he continues his agricultural promotion policies, we will keep losing jobs. Could it be that you want to work to death on a farm like before?”
Hearing old man Sarkozy, Jashari and the surrounding people were stunned. Then they thought for a bit and found that old man Sarkozy was very correct.
The reason why they disliked the Lord City Lord was because of his agricultural promotion policy that put the companies of Banta City in danger. It caused many people to lose their comfortable and high income jobs.
Now that Count Stagg had stabilized his position as the Lord City Lord with this sudden strange increase in grain yield, the Banta City companies would be in an even worse position.
They might not even be able to keep their jobs with the Cantona Chamber of Commerce.
At the right time, Cantona who everyone was waiting for came in.
When they saw him, everyone asked him the questions they were worried about.
Cantona waved his hand with a smile, “Everyone, be assured. Although our Cantona Chamber of Commerce is a company in name, we mainly deal with farming, so there’s no conflict with the Lord City Lord’s plan. Last time the Lord City Lord even specially met with me and praised our company. We have to keep helping the Banta City farmers with their farms just like before.”
“Really? Could it be that he doesn’t know about your relationship with chairman Xu?” Jashari asked.
“So what if he knows? For those important people, whether they can receive what they need is the most important.” Cantona said with a faint smile.
Old man Sarkozy looked at Cantona with knit brows, “I say, Cantona, it can’t be that that fellow gave you a bit of praise that you threw yourself at his feet, right?”
Cantona laughed, “Old man Sarkozy, you’re looking down on me too much. Although the Lord City Lord has praised our company, it doesn’t benefit our company at all. Rather he added that the influence of the canned fruit factory was bad, making Koror Village only plant fruits and not a single bit of wheat. If Koror Village were to plant wheat, Banta City’s grain yield would have already broken eight hundred thousand tons.”
“Ah?” Hearing this, everyone stood up, “Based on your words, he’s planning on shutting down the canned fruit factory?”
Cantona said with a helpless sigh, “He doesn’t dare force the Frestech Chamber of Commerce to close their factory, but he actually requested our company to help Koror Village to remove all their fruit trees after the fall harvest. He wants to plant grain in all the farmland.”
“He dares!” The villagers from Koror Village instantly jumped up and angrily roared, “We worked hard to plant those fruit trees and it’s only been two years, based on what can he make us dig them up?”
“That’s right, it’s hard enough for the Frestech Chamber of Commerce to buy up all the fruit. I was planning on planting a few more fruit trees tomorrow.”
“Damn, I can earn three hundred gold coins a year on those two mus of fruit trees, how much can I earn from planting wheat? Can it even reach thirty gold coins? If he wants to dig up those fruit trees, will he give me that money?”
“Not only that, my wife and daughter are both working at the canned fruit factory and they are earning close to thirty gold coins a month. If we dig up our fruit trees, how could the canned fruit factory keep operating? Wouldn’t my wife and daughter not have a job anymore?”
“Why doesn’t this idiot City Lord die? Our family is relying on this to earn several dozen gold coins a month and now that the canned fruits are selling well, with even better future prospects, he doesn’t want us to do it anymore! This is simply not letting us live!”
“Damn, father can’t take this anymore, I’ll go and find that damn city lord and go all out!”
……
If it was talking about the grain yield from before, everyone was just chatting with a bit of doubt. Now that they suddenly heard that this matter was related to their own benefits, everyone instantly became riled up.
Of course, just with the income from the canned fruit factory and the orchard, the villagers of Koror Village were living better lives. Now that they were to lose that with an order from the City Lord Manor, to have them return to their poor lives from before, how could anyone accept that.
This group cursed out, but they couldn’t do a single thing.
In the end, they were just weak peasants, they could only scold the aloof Lord City Lord, but they really couldn’t do anything about it.
Only old man Sarkozy was calm. After thinking for a bit, he noticed that Cantona had a smile on his face and his mind turned before he asked, “Cantona, the idiot Lord City Lord is doing this and the canned fruit factory is about to close, how did chairman Xu react to this?”
Cantona gave old man Sarkozy a nod of praise. Seeing everyone looked over, he said with a smile, “Chairman Xu naturally already has his plans. I called you all here this time to ask what you think about these plans.”
“Just tell us, chairman Xu’s arrangements must be good.”
“Right, only chairman Xu can make life better, following this idiot City Lord is walking the path to death.”
“Un, Cantona, tell us. Whatever plans chairman Xu has, we’ll follow them.”
……
“It’s fine to listen to chairman Xu on other things, but this time I feel you should honestly consider it.” Cantona said, “Because chairman Xu’s arrangements are for everyone to farm in another place.”
“Farm in another place? Where?” Everyone doubtfully asked.
Cantona revealed a smile. When he heard of Xu Yi’s plans at first, his heart was shocked and when these people finished hearing them, they would be even more shocked than him.
“That place…..is the Stantine Duchy.”